Books and Documents (22 Feb 2017 NewAgeIslam.Com)

Name of the Book: Searching for a
King—Muslim Nonviolence and the Future of Islam

Author: Jeffry R. Halverson

Published by: Potomac Books,
Washington DC

Year: 2012

ISBN: 978-1-61234-469-0

Pages: 172

Irrespective
of what reason one might adduce for it, it is a fact that the notion of Muslims
and Islam being linked to violence is widespread today. In this
very timely book, Jeffry Halverson (Islamic Studies scholar and historian of
religions, presently teaching at Arizona State University, USA) persuasively
argues for the validity of a different narrative of Islam, one based in and
committed to nonviolence. Recent icons of nonviolent activism, such as Martin
Luther King Jr. (which explains the word
‘King’ in the book’s title) and Mahatma Gandhi, do have parallels among
Muslims, too, Halverson informs us, even though they are not as widely known,
among both Muslims and others, as they should be.

Halverson notes the lamentably widespread
belief in what he terms ‘the narrative of violence’ as a means for addressing
grievances. This is definitely not a Muslim-specific phenomenon, he points out,
at the same time as he notes that it is something that those Muslims who
support extremism in the name of Islam do share. He stresses that as a means to
redress sociopolitical grievances and create socioeconomic change, this
narrative of violence is a “simplistic farce”. “It is a form of false
consciousness. The perpetrators of violence are actually enacting the source of
their own discontent as an erroneous means to alleviate it.” Halverson refers
to the terrible destruction that Muslim societies themselves have faced as a
result of violence in the name of Islam to show how utterly counterproductive
the narrative of violence is. He insists that “the violence of the extremist is
pointless, doomed to failure, and abhorrently wasteful. It is only through
rejecting the false promise of the narrative of violence that progress,
prosperity, and prestige can be attained.”

Halverson notes that recent events have
created the impression that Islam is “somehow uniquely and irreconcilably
violent”, but, he says, “I find that impression troubling and misguided.” All
religions, he explains, are humanly interpreted by interpreters according to
their own subjective and contextual needs and interests. There is no single
interpretation of a religious text, each being interpreted diversely. There
will always be rival readings to support rival conclusions. This means that
just as some people might interpret a religious text to advocate violence,
others might interpret the same text to mean just the opposite.

When it comes to nonviolence, Halverson
explains, virtually all religions face issues that have to be reconciled.
“Violence is found in the sacred texts of nearly all religions; it simply
depends on where one looks”, Halverson says, adding that certain references to
violence in Islamic texts is not at all unique. This reference to violence in
the different scriptures is diversely interpreted—by advocates of extremism and
by champions of nonviolent activism—to come to diametrically opposite
conclusions.

Halverson explains some of the diverse ways
in which the concept of jihad is understood in Muslim sources, as interpreted
by extremists as well as by advocates of Islamic nonviolence. There are many
possibilities of interpreting jihad to mean nonviolent efforts for a noble
cause, he tells us. These understandings need to be made more widely known in
order to counter the radical discourse on jihad, Halverson believes.

rejecting the narrative of violence,
Halverson presents a counter-narrative to it—the narrative of nonviolence. By
‘nonviolence’ he means nonviolence activism (as distinct from passive
nonresistance) as lived out by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.. He sees it as the appropriate means for
addressing a range of sociopolitical grievances and conflicts, and says this is
what Muslims, too, could adopt. In this regard, he says: “Readers might even
express skepticism that Islamic nonviolence is possible, given the outrageous
violence that afflicts the contemporary Muslim world. Rest assured, however,
that Islamic nonviolence is very much a reality and that its champions are
numerous.”

Halverson highlights the fact that this narrative
of nonviolence is available to Muslims within their own religious traditions
and heritage, and so is not alien to or a betrayal of it. He presents his case
for the compatibility of Islam and nonviolence by recounting the teachings of
five modern Muslim champions of nonviolence from different parts of the
world. All of them saw nonviolence as
“as something that is fully compatible with the Qur’an and the teachings of the
Prophet Muhammad”, Halverson explains. “By examining these figures and their interpretations
of Islam”, he writes, “it is my hope that non-Muslim readers will better
appreciate the rich diversity and peaceful aspects of Islam, and that its
Muslim readers will better appreciate the important heritage that their
brothers and sisters in Islam have left them for the future.”

One of the most remarkable advocates of
nonviolence as a means for socio-political transformation was Abdul Ghaffar
Khan (b. 1890-1987), the Pathan leader who was a close colleague of Mahatma
Gandhi. Halverson provides interesting glimpses into the life and worldview of
the ‘Frontier Gandhi’, who, while rooted in Islamic traditions,
enthusiastically embraced people of other faiths and believed that non-violent
means were the only appropriate way to solve complex socio-political issues.

The second advocate of Islamic nonviolence
Halverson profiles is Shaykh Jawdat Saeed. Born in Syria in 1931, Saeed studied
at Al-Azhar in Cairo, a leading centre for Sunni Islamic learning. A prolific
writer, he has extensively critiqued, on Islamic grounds, the politics-centric
interpretations of Islam (also called ‘Islamism’), and has also written on
nonviolence from an Islamic perspective. Saeed asserts, Halverson tells us,
that the manipulation of the concept of jihad “has probably caused more harm to
Muslims than any other malpractice” and so, he says, those who use jihad as a
violent tool for coercion and shedding blood “must be quelled with any possible
means”, not only because they are terrorists, but because “they are also trying
to distort and corrupt Islam”.

The late Sudanese scholar, Mahmoud Taha
(executed in 1985) is Halverson’s third champion of Islamic nonviolence.
Halverson provides a broad overview of Taha’s approach to Islam, which believed
that peace and nonviolence were the Islamic norm.

Halverson’s fourth case study is Muhammad
ibn Mahdi Hussaini al-Shirazi (1928-2001). Born in Najaf, Iraq, in a family of
Shia religious scholars, Al-Shirazi was a prolific writer. He stressed
teachings of nonviolence and forgiveness in the Quran and the traditions from
the Prophet and the Imams. Al-Shirazi argued that the “just as the soul is
stronger than the body, so too is nonviolence, since it is the weapon of the
soul, and so it is more powerful than the weapon of the body, which is made of
matter.” He highlighted cases of early Muslims who personified nonviolent
resistance to oppression.

In
response to critics of Islamic nonviolence, who may point to the battles the
Prophet engaged in or the military campaigns of his successors, al-Shirazi
remarked that these were cases of the “lesser of two evils”, comparing them to
“when a patient reluctantly agrees to undergo a surgical operation to amputate
a limb in order to prevent greater harm to his body and health”. This, however,
did not lead him to retract his commitment to nonviolence in today’s context,
which he believed was more important than ever. He asserted that nonviolence is
more than simply nonaggression. It means, he explained, that “an individual
would not attempt to hurt another individual even with respect to the strongest
of his adversaries and even if he had the right to do so; [for] Allah the
Almighty states [in the Qur’an]: ‘And if you forgive, it is closest to
righteousness.’”

Halverson tells us that besides what Al-Shirazi
termed “physical nonviolence” he also advocated “verbal nonviolence” and
“nonviolence of the heart” (the latter being described in traditional Islamic
discourses as Jihad al-Nafs or ‘jihad of the self (or soul)’. Al-Shirazi
noted that these forms of nonviolence are more difficult to practice than
“physical nonviolence,” but must be practised nonetheless. “Verbal nonviolence”
is to curb ones tongue so as to not damage the aggressor—in other words,
curbing hostile and aggressive speech. Believers faced with insults, he
advised, should “seek refuge in silence and abstain from responding likewise”.
“Nonviolence of the heart” is when “one does not fill his heart with violence
towards foes and adversaries”.

The New Delhi-based Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
(b. 1925) is Halverson’s fifth champion of Islamic nonviolence. Halverson
provides some insights into the Islamic theology of peace that the Maulana has
developed, including his critique of the politics-centred interpretation of
Islam and of terrorism in the name of jihad.

The book ends with a discussion of the
possibilities in Islam of nonviolence as a form of jihad, understood as exerted
efforts. Halverson insists that
nonviolence “is not only a legitimate form of jihad, as justified by the sacred
texts but its necessary form in the age of nuclear and chemical weapons, on the
basis of a classical Islamic legal principle called maslaha, or the “public
interest.”’

Halverson hopes that his book will help
foster greater discussion and awareness among Muslims and others about
nonviolence and about great Muslim champions of it who, he says, rightly belong
alongside others who are more commonly known. That may go a long way in
countering violence in Muslim societies and in the world more generally, while
leading both Muslims and others to appreciate the rich possibilities that exist
in Islamic tradition of nonviolence as a means for the resolution of grievances
and negotiating social life. Readers committed to that vision may find this
book a great blessing.

TOTAL COMMENTS:- &nbsp 3

THE AUTHOR COULD NOT BE JOKING.

Given the following academic credentials of the author of this article, one can hardly question his sincerity in framing this piece:

Jeffry R. Halverson is an Islamic studies scholar and historian of
religions, specializing in modern Sunni Islam in the Middle East and
North Africa. He received the M.A. (2004) and Ph.D.(2008) in Religious
Studies (Islam in Global Context) from Arizona State University in
Tempe. He received his B.S. degree in Art and Religious Studies from
Nazareth College (NY). In 2000-2001 he was a Fulbright scholar in Cairo,
Egypt, where he studied the Qur'an and Sunni theology ('ilm al-kalam).

Professor Halverson is the author Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam
(Palgrave Macmillan 2010), Searching for a King: Muslim Nonviolence and
the Future of Islam (Potomac, 2012), and the lead author of Master
Narratives of Islamist Extremism (Palgrave Macmillan 2011). He has also
published in several academic journals, including The Muslim World, The
Journal of Communication, and Politics & Religion. He joined the
faculty at Coastal Carolina University in 2013. He was previously an
Assistant Research Professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human
Communication at Arizona State University.

By muhammd yunus - 2/22/2017 10:08:37 PM

wow new one Islamic non-Violence, I like this joke.

The author miss to write down the source of inspiration of this Islamic Non-Voilence.

For Muslim to became non-violent have to talk from within to himself, their is no source in Abrhamic relgion books except the like of Jesus who was peace loving, God loving and Human loving with lots of compassion.

Martin Luthar King , Mandela and many more had inspiration from Ghandhi and Ghandhi had inspiration from Raja Harishchandra.

By Aayina - 2/22/2017 6:48:17 PM

Good book review! It would be great if we can replace the ideology of jehad with the ideology of nonviolence.

By Ghulam Mohiyuddin - 2/22/2017 11:07:13 AM

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